As The Stars Shine
by 1in100Writers
Summary: "It is in that moment of darkness that we know who we are. It's then that we know why we're fighting. In that moment, everything changes. You find out who you are and who others are. You find out who you can and cannot trust. Because in daylight, everything is beautiful. But in the darkness... that's when you find out who will fade; just like some stars do."


**I personally think that while all these Percabeth-filled stories that revolve around Annabeth breaking Percy's heart are nice, they are rather hard to process. Everything in those stories are rather jumbled up and put together in a way that makes you feel like you personally tried pushing two puzzle pieces (that weren't meant to fit) together so they sort-of hold together. **

**And honestly? I'm tired of Annabeth becoming immortal (either as a minor goddess or a Hunter of Artemis) and betraying Percy. I agree that Percy's done a lot and his fatal flaw is loyalty, but you have to understand that Annabeth wants something permanent in her life. She's not going to dump him in order to keep him safe or something. She would more likely tell Percy and make a plan for them to make it through the obstacles - together.**

**Disclaimer: Do I have to? ...Don't own. Don't sue.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: ANNABETH<strong>

_Five Years Earlier..._

The moon glistened over Camp Half Blood, as it was almost midnight. A dark figure stood at the hill, talking to another figure. Figure one had black hair, with startling blue eyes and punkish clothing. She seemed very worried for her friend, and you could practically feel the tenseness in her posture; no matter how much she tried to disguise it, this was one of her first friends and she was worried sick.

The second figure just looked weary. She had been in two wars; she was allowed at least that comfort.

"Annabeth...are you sure?" asked an uncertain Thalia.

Annabeth closed her eyes and opened them again. She slowly scanned the area, as if trying to memorize everything. As she breathed in, she could faintly smell the salty sea. It flooded her with memories, and her resolve almost broke right there. She had been exiled from Camp because of that quest she had led. She went on a quest alongside a son of Ares and one of Thalia's half-brothers, a son of Zeus. Annabeth was the last one standing during the final battle with some Furies. Long story short, one of her companions (the son of Zeus) decided to kill a mortal; Camp found out and since she was the last one alive...

Well, Annabeth had to be the scapegoat.

That was how things worked.

She would be lying if she said that she wasn't at all bitter; she'd been a loyal camper for eleven years now. She helped defeat the Titan Kronos in the Second Titan War and she was one of the Seven in the Giant War. Hell, she'd been through Tartarus and back. Was this how they repaid her for all of her effort to save the gods?

Now she understood exactly how Luke felt. She was banished by not only Camp Half Blood, but also the gods by a 8/12 vote (only the major Olympians were allowed to vote on this one). The only people who disagreed were Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite and Artemis. Poseidon because he knew that Percy would feel heartbroken and Athena because she knew that Annabeth would never do such a thing. Artemis knew exactly what happened, so she also voted in Annabeth's favor. Aphrodite just said something about not wanting to break up her 'OTP' or something like that. The Seven denied the fact that she had done that, but it was no use. The gods had determined her Fate...

...only later would they know how foolish that had been.

Right now, she was talking to one of her best friends.

"Yes," Annabeth said. "I've been exiled because of the gods' folly. They didn't even try to find the person who really did it. They only wanted someone to take the blame so that they wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. This band of egotistical beings couldn't rule over the world... But I believe that with you, The Hunters of Artemis and Percy, we will be able to make a statement against their wrongdoings. I didn't realize it until now, but they were always looking for a scapegoat; the easy way out, so that they wouldn't need to take responsibility for their actions."

She sighed. "Well, I'm tired of that. With the money I earned from writing my novels about Percy and I's adventures together, I'm creating my own camp. I'll train everyone until they're ready in order to bring them to this camp so they can become heroes, but I'm going to make sure that they're completely prepared for their quests and fighting monsters. They will be properly taken care of and their concerns will be addressed. No demigod in my camp will be ignored. To me, the gods no longer matter, but for those whose lives depend on the gods, I will make sure they are completely prepared."

Thalia smiled sadly. "You've changed and matured too much. I'm not sure that I even recognize you anymore. I'll miss you, Annabeth. But here..."

Thalia took a plain, silver band from her pocket. It began glowing, lighting up the dark sky. Its light faded slowly as it neared closer and closer to dawn.

"These are bands that all Hunters get in order to summon us, but I'm adding something to it so you can summon us just for a special event or something," Thalia explained.

She then chanted something over and over before a beautiful charm with a bow and arrow appeared. Thalia handed it over to Annabeth and watched as she put it on her wrist. Afterward, Thalia pulled her into a hug. A tear slowly trickled down her eye. _Please be safe_, she thought. _Please be safe._ Thalia chanted the same thing in her head over and over.

And in the distance silhouetted a figure with black hair and sea-green eyes, sadly watching the exchange. _I'll find her camp_, he thought. _She's not going to be in any danger. I'll make sure of it._

* * *

><p><em>Present-time...<em>

"And that's the story," Annabeth explained as she walked over to camp with two children around age 13.

One of the children reminded her so much of Percy; it was like a feminine version of him. She had the same black hair and sea-green eyes with that same lopsided smile he always wore. Her name was Layla, a girl at age 11. She was obviously a daughter of Poseidon. The other was a boy who wore only black. He was healthy, though. He had shadow-travelling powers, so it was obvious that he was a son of Hades. He called himself Jared, and he said that he was 11 as well.

A large hotel appeared in the distance. _Lotus Hotel and Casino,_ it said (or, at least, to mortals).

For demigods, the letters would scramble together to make _Anna's DIOS Hotel_, and the excess letters 'c' 'l' 'o' 't' 'u' were discarded. (Annabeth once went to Spain with Percy because there were demigod sightings there and she was forced to learn Spanish. 'Dios' means 'God' in Spanish)

Years before, Annabeth had spent time in the casino. It was during her first quest, so she made a replica of it as a memory. Plus, she asked her mother to help her enchant the place to make it almost exactly like the place in Vegas. It would freeze time inside the hotel only for demigods. To mortals, it was just a normal 5-star hotel located in New York. At first it was an annoyance because Annabeth had to hire many mortals in order to wait after the hotel guests, but the extra work paid off as the hotel was in high demand and made a lot of money. She had Hazel help her manipulate the Mist (yes, she and Hazel still kept in contact in secret, sort of like with her mother) in order to keep the demigods training. Capture the Flag was done on the rooftop, which was enchanted to become either a large party area - how it was to mortals - or a huge field for Capture the Flag. Plus, the fields' land always changed, so everyone had to adapt to their surroundings; a feat Camp Half Blood didn't have.

All her campers slept in the penthouse suite, which was also enchanted to fit all of the Cabins. The suite was only accessible to demigods and was larger than the entire hotel combined. It held thirteen cabins. None of them were honorary; Annabeth thought to make sure everything was practical.

Cabin One was for children of Zeus.

Cabin Two was for children of Poseidon.

Cabin Three was for children of Hades.

Cabin Four was for children of Demeter

Cabin Five was for children of Ares.

Cabin Six was for children of Athena.

Cabin Seven was for children of Apollo.

Cabin Eight was for children of Artemis.

Cabin Nine was for children of Hephaestus.

Cabin Ten was for children of Aphrodite.

Cabin Eleven was for children of Hermes.

Cabin Twelve was for children of Dionysus.

And Cabin Thirteen... was for people who wanted to stay in Annabeth's camp. It was for people like Dianne, a daughter of Apollo that was loyal to Annabeth to the end; Annabeth had been the only one to welcome Lillian to Camp Half Blood, since she arrived right after the Second Titan War. Annabeth had been extremely anguished when Dianne had arrived, since her best friend and boyfriend had disappeared mysteriously. Instead of ignoring her like everyone else, though, she had introduced her to everybody and helped her find out who her father was. And so, Dianne came to help Annabeth with healing people after Capture the Flag and rescue missions.

While Camp Half Blood now had cabins for the minor gods and goddesses, Annabeth's Heroes of Olympus camp did not. She figured that because they were only minor gods and goddesses, their children would not attract many monsters. Any son/daughter of minor gods or goddesses that she found would be escorted to Camp Half Blood very quickly, once she figured out that they weren't the children of any major god.

The Heroes of Olympus camp, although modeled after the original one, was actually very different. In Annabeth's camp, they trained far harder than they did in Camp Half Blood. She made sure to make her camp far more organized, so everybody knew exactly what to do in any given situation. She actually had them run through drills to make sure that they were completely prepared.

First of all, Annabeth created a basic course and extras for every demigod, which consisted of (standard time per day):

1.) Questing: Basics and Practice Quests (2 hours) Teacher: Holographic Annabeth Textbooks: _Doing and Surviving Quests from Your Immortal Family_

2.) Sword-fighting (2 hours) Teacher: Annabeth

3.) Greek: Language, Legends and Characters (1 hour) Teacher: Holographic Annabeth Textbooks: _Annabeth's Guide to Greek, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods__  
><em>

4.) Latin: Language, Legends and Characters (1 hour) Teacher: Holographic Annabeth Textbooks: _Annabeth's Ultimate Guide to Latin_

Optional: Battle Strategy (2 hours) Teacher: Holographic Annabeth Textbooks: _The Art of War, Creating a Strategy Worthy of Athena_

Optional: Architecture (1 hour) Textbooks: _My Adventures as Architect of Olympus__  
><em>

Optional: Canoeing (1 hour)

Optional: Planting (1 hour) Textbooks: _Planting 101__  
><em>

Optional: Music (1 hour) Textbooks: _Singing the Story of Your Life__  
><em>

This way, every demigod knew the basics. The hours were flexible; breakfast was from 6:30 to 8:45 and 'classes' began at 7:00 - 10:00 and ended at 1:00 - 4:00. If you began at 7:00, you could fit in up to three more 'classes' or extend many of them.

Annabeth wrote some books to help with these 'classes'. She designed and programmed holographic images of herself to teach Battle Strategy, Questing, Greek and Latin while she herself taught Sword-fighting. The holograph device was designed to be able to answer any question, teach and even retort when needed to.

A voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Annabeth?" Layla asked. "Is that camp?"

"Yes, Layla dear," She answered.

"Why are there mortals surrounding the area?" Jared questioned warily.

"Well, this isn't just camp," Annabeth explained. "It's also a hotel for mortals. That's how we're able to fund this place, you know?"

"Oh, I understand now," Jared replied.

"Come now, we're almost there," Annabeth stated.

The three of them entered the lobby and went up the elevator to floor number 100, a floor not accessible to mortals.

* * *

><p>Annabeth opened the door to the walk-in closet of the Athena Cabin. She touched the picture of her mother and herself and muttered a spell.<p>

In an instant, she was in a nice, 4-room apartment that held a bedroom with a queen-sized bed and a small closet, a training room, a library (the largest room) and a room full of souvenirs and jewelry. It may seem shallow to have that jewelry, but the jewelry was for she and her campers to have back up in every moment that it is needed.

They were all either silver or wooden, and all of them took the shape of owls. Well, all of them except for one.

Annabeth took the golden owl necklace with a beautiful jewel in the middle and whispered an enchantment that her mother taught her. Then, she put it on and the spell was activated. After five years of working to decode Athena's spell (in order to use), she could teleport to a camper asking for her help. All she had to do was whisper the spell that activated Athena's blessing.

(tace dot com /vendors/rhumba/owl_ )

All of a sudden, her pendant's light brown jewel turned red and began heating up. It didn't hurt her; it never did. All she felt was a small change in temperature, but there was a tug at her heart that made it three times worse. This was definitely important, as none of her reactions were ever this bad. The pendant could assess the situation, and it was a critical emergency. She mumbled the spell and was teleported to Camp Half Blood.

It was one of her old campers, Katherine Smith. She was under attack by a Cyclops. I quickly examined my surroundings. There were only a few witnesses, none of them posing an immediate danger to her. Without further hesitation, I lunged.

The Cyclops was busy, so it didn't even notice me. All I had to do was stab it with my Imperial Gold sword (a parting gift from Athena) and it simply turned to dust.

_Wow,_ I thought. _That may have been the easiest battle I've ever fought._

"Katherine, are you alright?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah," Katherine breathed out.

Katherine was Annabeth's first camper. She was a daughter of Aphrodite, so she wasn't very good with a sword. However, she wasn't one of those stereotypical daughters of Aphrodite. She was more like Piper, though she was a little bit less of a warrior.

Annabeth quickly assessed the damage that the Cyclops caused. _Just a few cuts_, she thought. _Not too bad.__  
><em>

So why had she been called here? What was going on? Her charm was always perfect, always able to know exactly how much of an emergency something was. But this time? It had been completely off, and this was just her being generous. But then she realized...this wasn't the fault of her pendant. No; this was completely her. It was one of her own reactions. But what had caused it?

"HEROES!" a very familiar voice shouted. "THERE'S TROUBLE ON HALF-BLOOD HILL!"

Annabeth sprinted off towards the hill.

On the hill was Percy fighting around fifty Cyclopes with two other campers. These campers were from her camp.

The two campers made eye contact with her, nodded and pressed on their owl jewelry. Annabeth immediately muttered the spell and teleported right next to Percy.

She quickly thought of a plan. Once again, Annabeth made eye contact with the two campers while Percy was surrounded by Cyclopes, trying to hold his own. _Right,_ she signaled to her campers. _Go right._ She ran to the left and began to slash her way to Percy. She noticed a Cyclops gaining on him from the back and stabbed the Cyclops in front of her. As it turned to dust, she yelped._  
><em>

"PERCY!" she screamed. "MOVE TO THE RIGHT!"

He was able to dodge the Cyclops' attack without even knowing it, and the Cyclops looked confused, like _'Didn't I kill him?'__  
><em>

Annabeth took its minute of confusion to stab it. The Cyclops burst into dust, but Annabeth couldn't rest now to check Percy for injuries. Her main objective was to get the other two demigods back inside the border and make sure that nobody else intervened. She didn't want anyone to die. She and Percy could barely take on three at a time; any other camper would have died by now. Her life didn't really matter, though. After all, she was 'banished'.

She was taking on five other Cyclopes, and the two campers tried to help her.

"Jack, Jill!" (A/N: I couldn't resist) Annabeth shouted. "Go back under the safety of Camp! Don't worry about us and save yourselves!"

She slashed one into pieces, stabbed the other through the chest with a poisoned knife. Two other Cyclopes charged at her with their swords out. She simply moved to the side and watched as they stabbed each other and turned into golden dust. One Cyclops came behind her, though, and was able to make a slash at her thigh before she noticed him and killed him.

After taking out the rest of the Cyclopes, Annabeth was very injured and Percy as well, though Percy took more damage; he decided to forget about plans and jump in there. Obviously, he got out with more injuries.

Annabeth was just glad that she didn't die.

Campers ran over to the top of the hill, where the two heroes were resting. The Apollo campers quickly took both of them to the infirmary.

That was all Annabeth saw before all went black.

* * *

><p>Slowly, she opened her eyes.<p>

The first thing that happened was that she saw the person in front of her say something. He was obviously a son of Apollo, with his doctor's jacket and all that. Plus, he had some medicines that she recognized with him. What they said was this: "She killed a mortal. Are we really going to heal her?"

Annabeth's eyes narrowed.

"You're welcome for saving a child of the Big Three and one of your half-siblings. I appreciate your gratitude, child of Apollo," she deadpanned.

He glanced at her. "Annabeth Chase, former Heroine of Olympus, Architect of Olympus, One of the Seven, Heroine of the Second Titan War, Counselor of the Athena Cabin and daughter of Athena."

She rolled her eyes. "You act as if being falsely accused of doing something takes away from all the good that you've ever done. Pathetic, just like most of the Olympians. But you forgot one thing, son of Apollo. I am also the founder of the Heroes of Olympus camp for demigods who have not yet been corrupted by the gods. I trained them, taught them that who they are as individuals is important and that they are more than just pawns of the Olympians. I gave them a home and helped them figure out their immortal parent. I helped them through their past lives and allowed them to defend themselves from accusations instead of childishly blaming it on the easiest target."

He narrowed his eyes. "So, in other words, you kidnapped them and taught them that all Olympians were bad, told them that you were better and had them stay in your camp, unable to fulfill their destiny."

"You presume much, son of Apollo. It is not very wise," Annabeth said coldly. "I sent them here right when they were ready and gave them a special form of jewelry so that if they needed help, they could touch it and alert me-"

He interrupted her. "So you tried to bribe them to stay in order to stop them from coming here, under the pretense that it would be their choice. Oh, and my _name_ is Miguel. Not son of Apollo."

Annabeth was so angry that she didn't notice how weak she was getting due to her injuries.

"No," Annabeth denied. "Everyone with owl jewelry here was once in my camp. I do not protect those only under my guidance. I offer protection to all demigods alike and I stand up for them because demigods in Camp Half Blood didn't stand up for me when I needed it most."

_This is the gods' justice, I suppose, _she thought bitterly. _This is exactly how it goes. They wait for me to die and they allowed me to die. They disregard everything I've ever done for them for a false accusation... And I find it funny, how the gods believe that they can banish someone for such a crime, anyway. The gods and goddesses forget your loyalties immediately after you do the slightest thing that annoys them. This... this cannot be justice. If this were justice, then there is no hope left for this world. Perhaps... perhaps it is my time to go. So I can finally be at peace... but I can't help but feel like I failed this world. It has failed me; that much is true. But I would be no better had I done the same thing. _

"Forgive me, Olympus; though you should be the one asking for my forgiveness... Perhaps one day you will. Perhaps...Perh-h-ha-ps...

Her eyes closed involuntarily. Her breathing stopped, just as Chiron walked into the infirmary.

Chiron looked at Miguel like he betrayed him.

And then, time stopped for Annabeth Chase.

And then...

...all went black.

* * *

><p>She wasn't dead.<p>

That was the first thing that she had noticed when she had woken up from her slumber.

Secondly, she noticed that she wasn't alone.

That would have reassured her when she was alive - well, if she isn't right now - but now it just creeps her out. Sort of like spiders do, but not that bad. Spiders were a whole different type of scary. Though being watched made her feel a little bit shaken, the aura around the person (creature?) was nothing if not friendly.

"Tell me, dear, why is it that you are here?" a voice asked.

"I died," Annabeth said simply. "I don't plan on helping you take over the world, by the way. As much as I dislike the gods, we can't solve everything with war."

The voice chuckled heartily.

Then, a figure appeared before her. It was completely black. Well, until you looked closer. Upon closer inspection, this was more than empty space. The figure was filled with celestial forms and stars.

"Well, I suppose you are the one, then. Feisty, high-spirited, wise, compassionate and understanding. I see it now. Annabeth Chase, you were born a leader. And it seems that there is more for you to do in this world. Very well. Let us head to my planet. We'll discuss things there," the voice said.

"Before we go," Annabeth said. "Who are you?"

"Child, I am Chaos."


End file.
